August 7, 2010 Trip Report on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Round Trip

 No. 75 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

Trip Report from August 7, 2010 -- A Long Hot Dusty Day on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad

See Virginia & Truckee Video on Youtube

See the Renorailfan Channel on Youtube 

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 I am publishing a preliminary version of this report, I started it and then got busy with other things. Since AAA's VIA Magazine just wrote up the Virginia & Truckee, I wanted to get what I have out. 
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For all the people who say how great the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Reconstruction project is, I have hardly seen any trip reports from people who rode. I think it's a case of "do as I say, not as I do." To remedy this vacuum of information about the Virginia City by train experience, here is my report.

HIGHLIGHTS:

-- It's a great train ride, in short.
-- It's a long train ride with no choice but to spend three hours in Virginia City without a car
-- The stagecoach ride at the Savage Mill attraction is five-star!
-- For adult travelers who like to hike, it's a good idea if you have all day
-- For families with young children, it's best to arrange two cars and make a one-way ride out of it.
-- Boy is that stagecoach ride expensive -- and worth it!
-- The beginning and end of the ride wastes about an hour going through gravel pits, junkyards, race tracks and the rather unimpressive scenery of Mound House. Coming soon -- trackside brothels!

August update -- Virginia and Truckee Reconstruction

No. 74 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

August Update on Virginia and Truckee Railway Reconstruction
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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NOT MUCH TO UPDATE ON COMINTERN BUSINESS

As far as Commission business goes, there isn't much to report, as there was no meeting on August 2, the firest Monday of the month and the normal meeting date.

Officials from the project continue to claim that all trains are selling out without making it clear that ticket revenue will come nowhere near covering true or pro forma costs. See this message on the Yahoo Group, with a link to the report posted on the Gold Hill Historical Society.

July Update on Virginia and Truckee Reconstruction

No. 73 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

July Update on Virginia and Truckee Reconstruction
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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Here's some notes I took on the July (June 28) Comintern meeting.

At the top of the list is what they said at the end of the meeting, that they won't meet again until September (13th?) because they want to move to quarterly meetings. In my opinion (like everything I write on this blog) there are two reasons. One, the Comintern is out of money. Two, Dwight Millard has the long assigned but newly recognized power to take independent action spending lots of money as Chairman with no fear of legal repercussions. As he said when the Commission was confirming the lack of oversight over their operations, "I'm runnin' amok and I like it."

MESSY BREAKUP BETWEEN SNAR NNRF and COMINTERN

Ms. Santos of the Sierra Nevada Association of Realtors (SNAR) said that originally the $50,000 was given to the Comintern through the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation (NNRF) SIX YEARS AGO to refurbish coaches. The commission bought and sold the Harriman coaches that are still sitting in Portola awaiting pickup by the Timber Heritage Association folks from Humboldt County, CA.

Then SNAR was asked by NNRF to pull back $20K of the $50K to finance a video production promoting the V&T Reconstruction project.

Then the poop started flying and NNRF quit as fundraisers for the Comintern. More details coming, I will link to the resignation letter written by NNRF.

So once NNRF quit "fund-raising" for the V&T Comintern, SNAR asked themselves, why are we paying $20K for a video when NNRF no longer works with the Comintern. GOOD QUESTION!

Then SNAR decided to pull back the $50K from the Comintern and let it rest with NNRF or take it back altogether. Later, I hear rumors that SNAR met with the Foundation, was not satisfied that their money would be handled well, and have decided to leave the money with the Comintern.

Interim Report -- One Way Sales

No. 72 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

6/07 Interim Report -- One Way Sales
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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So far I have not been reporting on the one-way ticket sales. They are fairly dismal. I decided to provide a snapshot of where the one-way sales are, with no promise of updates. Of more than 10,000 seats left on the remaining 21 trips, 14 tickets have been sold.

6/6 Weekly Update -- V&T Railroad Ticket Sales

No. 71 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

6/06 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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Here's the weekly update on the tickets sold since my last post of May 31.  For trains starting June 12 through the rest of the season, only 127 net tickets were sold. Actually, 160 tickets were sold, and 33 ticket sales were lost due to a claimed website error on the ticket sales website***.

In addition, this week will begin adjustments to ticket sales to account for the sales after the report is posted and before the trains are run the following Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Further, since I don't sit at the station and count walk-up sales, these walk-up tickets will be added if the CCCVP reports them in their meetings.

V&T Railway Reconstruction "Fundraiser" quits

No. 70 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

V&T Railway Reconstruction "Fundraiser" quits
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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In another case of "good enough for government work," an email communication meant only for insider interests was accidentally emailed to a couple of activists who highlight malfeasance related to the Nevada Comintern for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee Railway.

The letter, written by Janice Ayres and Marcia Burgess, co-Presidents of the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation (NNRF), stated that the two were "stunned" by the revelation at a May 20, 2010 Comintern Budget meeting that funds donated through the Northern Nevada Railway foundation had been spent inappropriately without their permission.

5/31 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales

No. 69 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

5/31 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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Here's the weekly update on the tickets sold since my last post of May 24. 

149 STEAM TICKETS PLUS 57 DIESEL TICKETS SOLD = 208 TOTAL NEW TICKET SALES!!! IN RELATIVE TERMS, THAT'S A 50% GAIN IN THE RATE OF SALES. IN ABSOLUTE TERMS, THAT'S STILL WAY SHORT OF WHERE THEY NEED TO BE.

So if you are a Panglossian relativist, this is great news. We are living in the best of all possible worlds.

5/24 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales -- Negative diesel sales, small front end steam pickup, still lackluster sales: 5/24 report

No. 68 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

5/24 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales --
Negative diesel sales, small front end steam pickup, still lackluster sales: 5/24 report
See Virginia &Truckee Video on Youtube
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Here's the weekly update on the tickets sold since my last post of May 17. 


COMMENTARY:
10-9-8-7-6-5 more days to the start of the Virginia & Truckee Reconstruction train season!

Remember, we are now looking at a three-day per week schedule, after the Thursday runs were cancelled, trains will only run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Plus, it appears the May 28 diesel was cancelled. This was going to be the second run of the new season and should have sold out. The first run would have been May 27, but all the Thursdays were canceled. Then, with May 28 as the first run of the season, it really should have been oversubscribed. I almost bought a ticket!

I ask again, should they be selling at least a carload of tickets a week? What happens if a train only sells to 10% capacity, will they cancel it or run at a total loss?

And I repeat, in addition, it's important to note that even if "all 144" tickets are sold that's only 2/3 capacity on trains that need to sell out to 85% to "break even" after a massive subsidy. When you see a train with "142 tickets left," that means only 2 tickets are sold on a train with a planned capacity of 210 seats. The costs to run the train are fixed regardless of cars pulled. Things need to turn around quickly.

April 10 -- 13 tickets
April 19 -- 37 tickets
April 26 -- 15 tickets 
May 3 -- NET ZERO ticket sales, 20 bought, 20 cancelled
May 10 -- 43 steam tickets sold, 162 diesel tickets cancelled, Net loss of 119 tickets
May 17 --  196 new diesel ticket sales include re-booking of 119 lost ticket sales due to cancellation of Thursday trains. 113 tickets were sold on the steam trains. 

May 23 -- A less-than trainfull was sold this week -- 140 new ticket sales

STEAM

 143 Steam Tickets sold, over 75% of steam sales were on the first five trains. This is lending credence to the idea that there's very little visibility more than a few weeks out. Notice no groups were booked except possibly on the first or third steam train. This lends credence to the idea that groups don't book this late for same season travel. 

DIESEL (DISMAL) 


NEGATIVE THREE TICKETS WERE SOLD. The 8 tickets sold on the May 28 train appear to have been lost, and if they are re-scheduled they will show up as new sales on other trains. Other than that, only five diesel tickets were sold across the whole season this week. This means there was a net loss of three tickets sold this week.

IT APPEARS THE FIRST DIESEL OF THE SEASON HAS BEEN CANCELLED, AS IT NO LONGER APPEARS ON THE TICKET WEBSITE.

How in the heck can the first two trains of the season get canceled?????????

5/17 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales

No. 67 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

5/17 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales
See Virginia & Truckee Video on Youtube
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Here's the weekly update on the tickets sold since my last post of May 10. 

First, confirming last week's post, Website Gone Wild, the website was fine. What happened is the Carson City Convention and Visitor's Politbureau actually canceled all the Thursday runs. 

http://carsoncity.activitytickets.com/relax/trainrides

According to what I heard at last Monday's CCCVP meeting, they will try to get the canceled groups to re-book. This means last week there was a net loss of 119 tickets.

COMMENTARY:
Well, at this point two weeks away from the first trips, should they be selling at least a carload of tickets a week? What happens if a train only sells to 10% capacity, will they cancel it or run at a total loss?

In addition, it's important to note that even if "all 144" tickets are sold that's only 2/3 capacity on trains that need to sell out to 85% to "break even" after a massive subsidy. When you see a train with "142 tickets left," that means only 2 tickets are sold on a train with a planned capacity of 210 seats. The costs to run the train are fixed regardless of cars pulled. Things need to turn around quickly.

April 10 -- 13 tickets
April 19 -- 37 tickets
April 26 -- 15 tickets 
May 3 -- NET ZERO ticket sales, 20 bought, 20 cancelled
May 10 -- 43 steam tickets sold, 162 diesel tickets cancelled, Net loss of 119 tickets

May 17 --  196 new diesel ticket sales include re-booking of 119 lost ticket sales due to cancellation of Thursday trains. 113 tickets were sold on the steam trains. 

This makes gross ticket sales including rebookings of 113+196= 309 tickets. Net new sales were 147 tickets


So what I have been waiting for has not happened. With three trains a week, it would be nice to see at least one trainfull (210) of tickets sold.

Website Gone Wild: 5/10 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales

No. 66 -- NEVADA COMMISSION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

5/10 Weekly update -- V&T Re-con 2010 online ticket sales
Facebook Fan page for Virginia Truckee / Train Arts Living Steam Video 
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Here's the weekly update on the tickets sold since my last post of May 3. 

I cheated and did this Sunday night after 9pm. THIS IS PRELIMINARY, BECAUSE THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TICKET SALES WEBSITE. 

http://carsoncity.activitytickets.com/relax/trainrides

The site is showing that no Thursday diesel trips are available, including trips where 40 tickets were sold to groups. All these groups can't cancel at one time. I will report the data as I find it tonight WITH THE CAVEAT THAT the Website is probably Gone Wild and I will update this report with the correct figures.

COMMENTARY:
Well, at this point two weeks away from the first trips, should they be selling at least a carload of tickets a week? What happens if a train only sells to 10% capacity, will they cancel it or run at a total loss? Leaving aside the probably glitch that erases 162 ticket sales, the steam trip less than 2 weeks away.

In addition, it's important to note that even if "all 144" tickets are sold that's only 2/3 capacity on trains that need to sell out to 85% to "break even" after a massive subsidy. When you see a train with "142 tickets left," that means only 2 tickets are sold on a train with a planned capacity of 210 seats. The costs to run the train are fixed regardless of cars pulled. Things need to turn around quickly.

April 10 -- 13 tickets
April 19 -- 37 tickets
April 26 -- 15 tickets 
May 3 -- NET ZERO ticket sales, 20 bought, 20 cancelled
May 10 -- 43 steam tickets sold, 162 diesel tickets cancelled? This can't be right, it would be a net loss of 119 tickets